CAMP HOVEY, South Korea - For the past year, Juggernaut, the Forward Support Company for 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, has been involved in nearly non-stop support missions.
"Our battalion is very logistically heavy, so they utilize us a lot," said 2nd Lt. Garrett Barber, a 25-year-old platoon leader for Juggernaut. "There's never a dull moment."
After spending 45 days at Rodriguez Live Fire Range and with an upcoming warfighter exercise and the Expert Infantry Badge course looming on the horizon, the unit was in need of a break.
"There was a need to step away from our day to day operations and build that team cohesion," said Barber. "Just a little bit of a rest, a pause."
With only two days of open space on their training calendar, leadership conspired to find something both constructive and cathartic in order to help their Soldiers de-stress.
They decided on holding team competitions at Camp Hovey's obstacle course, with a three-day pass up for grabs.
"They're obviously excited about a day off, but I think most of them are enjoying the change of pace and the opportunity to go do something besides push fuel or push food or ammo, or turning wrenches and things like that," said Barber. "Its just an opportunity for them to do something different."
However, there was a twist. The obstacles on the course wouldn't be the only ones for the Soldiers to overcome.
"We wanted to get some team building going across the company as a whole, not just platoons going up against other platoons, but to try to get Soldiers to work with other Soldiers that they don't normally work with," said Barber.
Soldiers were shuffled up into teams of people with whom they had never worked with before, forcing them to build new working relationships and trust.
"We're just trying to build that camaraderie and teamwork with people that they don't working with on a daily basis," said Barber.
This presented new challenges from Pfc. Jacquez Passmore, a heavy equipment operator from Montezuma, Georgia, whose teammates were all new to him.
"This is totally different, we've never done anything like this before," said Pfc. Jacquez Passmore, a heavy equipment operator from Montezuma, Georgia. "This was excellent, just out of nowhere."
Passmore and his team were given two days to work together during unit physical training sessions and build a sense of cohesion and figure out how to best utilize their assets to overcome the obstacle course.
"I know of them, but we've never hung around. I didn't know their strengths and abilities," said Passmore. "There's a lot of personalities that you'd never encountered during work, so you have to learn to work with other people and their emotions."
Pfc. Joshua Quinn, a 23-year-old track vehicle repairer from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, realized that success for his team was going to require more than just personal strength; they needed to work together to win.
After one of their teammates experienced a slight sprain while trying to climb over a vertical wall, Quinn recognized the need to act.
"He hurt his groin so I just stood in front of him and said 'hey, use what you have to use,' and he stepped on me and got up," said Quinn.
"It's adverse conditions, but you get it done," said Quinn. "You're a Soldier. You expect the same thing from the man or woman next to you. You all get it together and get it done."
By the time the last few groups were rushing through the course, nearly everyone was exhausted. Still, each Soldier found the energy to stand up and cheer on their teammates as they made the final sprint to the finish line.
That's what makes being a Soldier great, said Quinn.
"A regular job, when you see them at work you don't see them anywhere else," said Quinn. "With people in the Army, you get stuck in the middle of nowhere with them. They're always going to be more than a co-worker," said Quinn.
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